I am required to make the first chapter of my scientific paper be called "Einleitung" in German, that would be "Introduction" in English, but the second one should be "Grundlagen", which I can't find a good translation for.
There are a couple of translations on dict.cc (http://www.dict.cc/?s=grundlagen), but none really fits in my opinion.
While the introduction contains meta-information about the paper itself (aims, procedures, structure, etc.), the chapter with the title that I am looking for is the first real chapter of the paper, containing the basics about the topic, with definitions of words and a general start into the topic.
While I used "basics" in the paragraph above, which actually describes what I am looking for quite well, I find that word to sound too casual and non-scientific. The other suggestions by dict.cc, for example principles don't fit nicely, since the chapter contains more than just that.
But I am sure an English paper contains chapters like these with standard titles that are used as a standard. What would be the name of the chapter I am describing?
Answer
I found this PDF from the University of North Carolina Wilmington titled Organization of a Traditional Academic Paper that I think is a very helpful description of each of the traditional sections of a paper along with a section title or in some cases, a list of possible section titles.
It suggests that the section after the introduction could be "Background", "History", "Review-of-Literature", or "Methodology" and describes that section as "[...] this section would provide the necessary background or history for understanding the discussion to come [...] this section justifies the research done by either showing that the writer has done their homework and/or has a clear understanding of research methods."
I think that "Background" would be the best choice from that list based on what you've explained about your second section, although I also like StoneyB's suggestion of "Fundamentals".
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